Bombardier’s Global 7000 long-range business jet flew for the first time Friday at Bombardier’s assembly plant at its private airport in Toronto. The aircraft took off from Downsview for a two-hour, 27-minute flight that went to 20,000 feet and 276 mph. "With today's first flight successfully completed, all teams remain focused on meeting the program's development and certification schedule and the aircraft's entry-into-service in the second half of 2018,” said Michel Ouellette, the Bombardier VP in charge of the program.

The Global 7000 and the slightly smaller but longer-range Global 8000 were announced in 2010 and were to have been in service by 2016 and 2017 respectively. The aircraft will be built at the Toronto plant but most of the testing will be done at Bombardier’s facilities in Wichita, which has better winter weather than Toronto. The 7000 will have an opening list price of $72.8 million and the 8000 will cost $56.9 million. Both are derivatives of the Global 6000.

Flying clubs and partnerships have always been an option for affordable aircraft ownership, but clubs aren’t always easy to find and partnerships require like-minded individuals. Another take on fractional ownership is for a sales company to set up shared ownership of aircraft it sells and that’s what Bristell Shares is offering.

At the inaugural Sport Aviation Showcase in Deland this week, Lou Mancuso, a long-time FBO operator based in Long Island, was promoting a different take on shared ownership. Mancuso said his program offers tiered buy-ins suitable for pilots who don’t fly much or want to try a share without committing a lot of money.

A Bristell Shares buy-in starts at $175 a month and $50 per hour wet, with a maximum of 30 hours a year and three weeks of exclusive access. That’s essentially the equivalent of a 1/16th share of the airplane, but with no expensive buy-in required. If the would-be owner is interested in more flying time, he or she can bump up to the equivalent of a 1/8th share for $340 a month, plus the $50 per hour flight charge. That guarantees 60 hours of flight time, although additional hours can be flown at a rate of $150 wet. Mancuso said Bristell Shares seeks to limit the aircraft shares to under nine per aircraft. He has Bristell LSAs located at airports in New York, Pennsylvania and Florida.

“Nobody needs to own an airplane themselves, especially a light sport. They just want to fly one once in a while. Shared ownership is great,” Mancuso said. More details about Bristell share are available at the company’s website.

AeroJones, which took over manufacturing and distribution of the Flight Design CTLS line, said it plans to expand early next year with a new facility in Florida. At the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase this week, AeroJones’ John Hurst told AVweb that the company hasn’t settled on a site yet, but the new sport aviation village on Deland Airport is under consideration.

AeroJones is a Taiwan-based company with manufacturing in mainland China, Hurst says. It was picked by Flight Design earlier this year after the company went into receivership due to a high debt load. AeroJones has acquired all of the Flight Design property rights, according to Hurst, and will manufacture, distribute and design the aircraft. Flight Design, a German-based company, will remain as a design arm. “They [Flight Design] liked AeroJones because of their superior facilities, their quality control abilities and their financing. They’re very well funded,” Hurst said. The new U.S.-based facility will add customer support capability and hopes to begin aggressive sales and promotion efforts. Hear more in this exclusive podcast recorded at the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase this week.

The Canadian Navy is sending a ship to a remote area of the British Columbia coast to see if an object found by a diver is part of an unarmed atomic bomb jettisoned by a crashing B-36 in 1950. Sean Smyrichinsky told the Vancouver Sun he found a strange-looking piece of metal on the ocean floor off Boyle Point on Pitt Island, about 500 miles north of Vancouver, while diving for sea cucumbers. “I found this big thing underwater, huge, never seen anything like it before,” Smyrichinsky said. He told others about his find but it wasn’t until he related it to a longtime resident of the area did the connection get made. “Nobody had ever seen it before or heard of it, (because) nobody ever dives there,” he told the Sun. “Then some old-timer said ‘Oh, you might have found that bomb.’”

"That bomb" might be a Mark IV atomic bomb of the same type that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. The U.S. Army has acknowledged that a bomb was jettisoned from a crashing B-36 in that area but that it did not contain any fissionable material. The aircraft was on a training flight from Alaska to California when three of its engines caught fire. The 17 crew members abandoned the aircraft but five died. The aircraft continued inland and crashed near the top of Mt. Kologet, about 200 miles from where the diver made his find. The Canadian Navy says the official record says the bomb’s core was packed with lead, rather than plutonium, but wants to make sure. However, it likely still has the TNT charge used to detonate the plutonium. “The Canadian Armed Forces treats reports of suspected unexploded ordnances very seriously and we continue to investigate this matter,” a government official told the Sun.

SpaceX says it will resume rocket launches in mid-December, now that the company knows what triggered a Sept. 1 launch pad explosion. Meanwhile, NASA advisors continue to raise concerns that fueling practices were a factor in the accident. As described by the New York Times on Friday, CEO Elon Musk said the cold liquid oxygen used to propel the rocket reached temperatures that made it solidify, then it reacted with helium-filled tanks, which burst and set off the series of explosions. In a CNBC interview, he called it a “really surprising problem that’s never been encountered before in the history of rocketry.” The dramatic burnup, showing a series of loud booms and fireballs erupting from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, destroyed the rocket and its cargo, a $200 million Israeli satellite. The investigation of the accident isn’t yet done, but the main cause has been found, Musk said. “So this was the toughest puzzle solved that we’ve ever had to solve. It looks like we’re going to be back to launching around mid-December,” Musk told CNBC.

Ongoing safety concerns about SpaceX’s practice of cooling fuel and then loading it just before launch – and someday doing this with astronauts on board – continue to be voiced by a NASA committee advising on International Space Station missions. The committee raised the issues in 2015 and again in October during the investigation into the explosion, according to a Wall Street Journal report. SpaceX uses supercooled fuel that must be loaded just before launch, with a crew already strapped into the spacecraft. Traditionally, the practice of fueling rockets with people on board has been considered too dangerous, although NASA and SpaceX said in the Journal report there have always been ongoing evaluations of the risks and they’ll continue to update the committee as the investigation continues.

The NTSB says the American Airlines B-767 that caught fire during takeoff from Chicago O’Hare on Oct. 28 had an “uncontained failure” of the right engine. A turbine disk in the GE-CF6 engine broke into “at least 4 pieces,” the board found in an investigative update issued Friday. One piece shot through the right wing, across the fuselage and into a UPS warehouse a half-mile away, the NTSB said. This led to a pool of fuel beneath the right wing and the fire. The jet quickly stopped on the runway seconds after the failure occurred. As flames and black smoke spewed from the right side of the jet, all 170 passengers and crew evacuated from the aircraft via emergency slides. About 20 people, including at least one flight attendant, were treated and released from local hospitals following the evacuation.

Investigators found fragments of the engine in the area and on the runway. Most of the disk pieces were collected and are undergoing analysis while the NTSB also looks at the CF6’s maintenance and manufacturing. The component that broke had 10,984 cycles out of a life limit of 15,000 cycles, the report said, and there’s evidence of fatigue cracking within the engine. The flight data recorder indicates the engine failure occurred while achieving takeoff power, with the airspeed at about 128 knots, according to the NTSB’s findings. About two seconds later, at about 134 knots, power to both engines decreased while autobrakes and speedbrakes engaged.

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GE has test run a developmental version of its Advanced Turboprop (ATP) engine that contains 35 percent 3D printed parts. The ATP will be used in Cessna’s new Denali single and is a big part of the sales pitch for the aircraft. GE says 3D printing saves weight and is more precise than traditional construction methods. "With subtractive manufactured parts and assemblies, you traditionally use bolts, welds or other interfaces to attach the parts together, which adds weight to the engine," Gordon Follin, who runs GE’s 3D printing department, told New Atlas. "On the ATP, additive reduces weight by eliminating those attaching features while also optimizing design of the parts.” The engine tested this week is just the beginning of the development process.

GE says that the final design will reduce 855 conventional parts in the engine to just 12 printed parts. Those parts include the sumps, bearing housings, frames, exhaust case, combustor liner, heat exchangers and stationary flowpath component. When it’s done, GE claims it will use 20 percent less fuel and provide 10 percent more power than comparable engines. Despite the record-setting achievement, the prototype was developed in a fraction of the time it normally takes because 3D printing makes the prototyping process so much faster. Parts that formerly took months to create in the conventional manner are printed in a few days and that speeds up the whole development process. The finished version of the engine is expected by the end of next year. AVweb's Paul Bertorelli prepared a video report on the engine at NBAA 2015.

A couple years ago, an airship moored at Orlando Executive Airport for an event. The area where airships moor is in an area used by helicopters as a practice area.One day, a student was using the practice area & an airship was also moored in the practice area. The student called the tower for takeoff clearance, but seemed a bit confused by the controller telling him to avoid the airship.

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine and is published twice a month. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause in the NTSB’s web site at www.ntsb.org. Final reports appear about a year after the accident, although some take longer. Find out more about Aviation Safety at www.aviationsafetymagazine.com.

August 1, 2016, Spanish Fork, UT

Beech C99 Airliner

At about 1840 Mountain time, the airplane sustained substantial damage following a collision with an object while being operated as a scheduled FAR 135 cargo flight. The solo commercial pilot was not injured. Visual conditions were reported.

The pilot later related he was in cruise climb at about 8500 feet msl when he noticed something in his peripheral vision, then felt a “thud” as something struck the airplane. There was no loss of control or abnormal control feel, so he continued the flight and landed uneventfully. Upon landing, about 12 inches of the airplane’s vertical stabilizer was missing; there also was substantial damage to the rudder. Initial examination showed no evidence of organic material. A detailed examination by the NTSB is pending.

August 2, 2016, Destin, FL

Cessna 414A Chancellor

The airplane descended into the Gulf of Mexico at about 2025 Central time, shortly after takeoff. The solo commercial pilot was fatally injured and the airplane was destroyed. Night visual conditions prevailed; an IFR flight plan was active.

A pilot-rated witness observed the airplane early in its takeoff at between 50 and 100 feet agl with its landing gear retracted. Other witnesses noted the airplane flew over a building adjacent to them at an estimated 150 feet agl. The airplane continued over the Gulf of Mexico, and then banked sharply right, with one witness describing the wings being nearly vertical. The airplane appeared to roll wings level, before it began descending and impacted the water.

August 2, 2016, Flagstaff, AZ

Piper PA-34-200T Seneca II

At about 2122 Mountain time, the airplane was destroyed when it impacted trees and terrain shortly after takeoff. The solo airline transport pilot received fatal injuries. Night visual conditions prevailed.

At 2119:44, the pilot told ATC he was “off two one” and climbing to “eleven thousand five hundred.” At 2120:17, ATC advised it had radar contact. At 21:22:57, ATC initially advised that radar contact had been lost, then made repeated, unanswered calls to the flight. Radar returns indicated the airplane climbed at about 1000 fpm for about 60 seconds; then the climb rate dropped to and remained at about 400 fpm for another minute. The airplane reached a maximum radar altitude of 8400 feet msl, then descended to ground impact during the next 20 seconds. Field elevation at the departure airport is 7014 feet.

Evidence indicates the airplane hit terrain at high speed and power settings. According to the NTSB, the 76-year-old pilot held multiple certificates and ratings, and reported 11,858 total hours on a second-class medical certificate application in March 2016. The 2157 weather observation included winds from 240 degrees at three knots, visibility 10 sm and a broken ceiling at 11,000 feet.

August 3, 2016, Fond du Lac, WI

Sonex Waiex

The airplane impacted terrain at about 1155 Central time, following a partial loss of engine power. Both the private pilot and flight instructor were seriously injured; the airplane was substantially damaged. Visual conditions prevailed.

According to preliminary information, the pilots were performing touch-and-go landings. Shortly after a takeoff, “the pilots reported a loss of engine power. During the forced landing, the airplane collided with a transmission line and impacted terrain. An inspection of the airplane revealed substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings.”

August 4, 2016, Russellville, OH

Cessna 150L

At 2009 Eastern time, the airplane was force-landed in a soybean field after the engine lost power. One pilot sustained a minor injury; the other pilot was not injured. The airplane was substantially damaged. Visual conditions prevailed.

According to the pilots, the airplane was descending for landing when they heard a loud “bang” and the engine lost power. Unable to maintain altitude, they made a forced landing in a soybean field, struck a ditch and nosed over. Examination revealed the Number 2 cylinder had separated between the flange and the head.

August 5, 2016, Wasilla, AK

Cessna 210-5/de Havilland DHC-2T

The two airplanes collided in mid-air while landing. Both aboard the Cessna—a flight instructor and a pilot receiving instruction—sustained minor injuries. The commercial pilot of the de Havilland DHC-2T Turbine Beaver and its sole passenger were not injured. Visual conditions prevailed.

The de Havilland DHC-2T pilot subsequently told investigators he was conducting a long straight-in final to land. While on final approach, at about 20 feet above the runway, the Cessna overtook the de Havilland from directly above, impacting the propeller. Following the impact with the Cessna, he continued the approach and landed.

The Cessna sustained substantial damage to its empennage and fuselage, while the de Havilland sustained substantial damage to its right wing. The pilots of both airplanes stated that there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframes or engines.

August 5, 2016, Waco, TX

Cessna P210N Pressurized Centurion

At about 1700 Central time, the airplane was substantially damaged when its landing gear collapsed during landing. The pilot and four passengers aboard were not injured. Visual conditions prevailed; the flight was operated IFR.

While in cruise flight, the pilot reported an electrical system problem and elected to divert. After receiving an initial vector from ATC, the airplane lost all electrical power. According to the NTSB, the pilot then successfully lowered wing flaps and landing gear, followed by an uneventful approach. After touching down, the landing gear collapsed and the airplane departed the left side of the runway before coming to rest.

August 6, 2016, Burns Flat, OK

Bugatti-DeMonge 100P Experimental

The experimental amateur-built airplane impacted terrain during takeoff at about 0820 Central time. The airline transport pilot was fatally injured; the airplane was destroyed during the impact and post-impact fire. Visual conditions prevailed.

At least one witness reported the airplane lifted off and began climbing. During the climbout, the airplane banked to the right and then to the left. The airplane’s left bank steepened; it descended nose-first and subsequently impacted terrain inverted. At 0753, recorded weather included winds from 040 degrees at nine knots and 10 sm of visibility under clear skies.

The airplane came to rest about 1900 feet and 335 degrees from the departure runway’s threshold, on a 330-degree heading. Much of the airframe was consumed by fire. The rudder cables were traced to the their respective pedals, but control continuity for the elevators and ailerons could not be established. No pre-impact anomalies with the drivetrain or engines were observed.

August 6, 2016, Cardington, OH

Cessna 180

At about 1515 Eastern time, the airplane impacted a building. The commercial pilot received minor injuries; the airplane was destroyed. Visual conditions prevailed.

The pilot was planning to land to the east on a private grass runway. After noticing people on the ground, he maneuvered to land in the opposite direction. The airplane touched down with its flaps fully extended, floated and then drifted right, so he decided to go around. He advanced the throttle to full forward and the engine gauges appeared normal, but the airplane felt “anemic” and climbed slowly. The next thing he remembered was seeing the building in his windscreen.

The airplane impacted a small pole barn just past the end of the runway. The pilot exited the airplane before a post-crash fire engulfed it. The pilot reported the engine had accumulated about two operating hours since a top overhaul. Visual inspection of the engine did not note any obvious discrepancies. The FAA carburetor icing probability chart indicated the airplane was operating in an area associated with a serious risk of carburetor ice formation at glide power settings.

Late last week, on the heels of NBAA BACE in Orlando, a new show popped up a few miles up the road in Deland: The Sport Aviation Showcase. I think everyone who has mentioned this to me has said the same thing: Don’t we already have one of these in Sebring, the Sport Aviation Expo? The answer is yes and that begets another question: Why two?

Evidently because the Deland Airport is bullish on growing the facility and they see a competitive advantage in going after Sebring’s efforts, with a combined show and an industrial complex devoted to light sport. I’ll get to the show in a moment.

One thing I think many people miss about the light sport industry is that it continues to, well, kind of trickle along. We have long ago settled the notion that it’s never going to be a mass-market industry but will likely continue to sell enough airframes to represent 10 to 20 percent of all aircraft manufactured in GAMA’s universe. (There’s another universe outside of GAMA and hundreds of airplanes are produced and sold in Europe and elsewhere that aren’t on our radar.)

So Deland’s idea is to erect a sport aviation “village” consisting of hangars and infrastructure devoted specifically to that industrial segment. Here, they are competing with Sebring, for in addition to its annual Expo in January, Sebring has several light-sport related industries on the field, including Lockwood Aviation, Tecnam, Paradise and a float manufacturer. So it’s not as if Sebring has been asleep. If Deland can offer sweeter deals and better support for light aircraft manufacturing, I’m sure it will attract companies, despite the anemic market activity. Remember, anemia isn’t death; it’s just weak growth. Many light sport businesses are cottage industries and it’s easy to see how they could benefit in a community of like businesses.

Like so many airports in Florida, Deland saw its heyday during World War II, when it was a Navy training field. Similarly, Sebring was used for B-17 training. Deland is smaller than Sebring, but it’s more centrally located—about an hour from Orlando International and half that from Daytona Beach. Inside the orbit of those two cities, Deland is, how to put this delicately, a little more cosmopolitan.

Deland has an active skydiving center and many of the businesses there are skydiving related. It’s already got several light sport businesses, a couple of turbine businesses and a naval air museum. MT propeller also has a facility and there’s a paint shop on the field. In other words, it’s got a solid core industrial complex and Deland clearly sees an opportunity to expand that.

As for the show itself, in this video, director Jana Filip said the city sees a symbiotic relationship between the sport aircraft village idea and an annual trade show to promote both Deland and the industry. It’s easy to see tie-in opportunities to make this work, although the ultimate success of such efforts remains to be seen. Launching a new show is a tall, steep hill to climb.

I canvassed a few of the exhibitors on Thursday, the day the show opened, and all of them said they booked a booth because the show was cheap to do and they were curious about the potential. Attendance on Thursday was too sparse to make any judgments; I’ll survey them again after the show closes. Two complaints I have consistently heard about the Sebring show concerned the weather and the racetrack. Sebring runs in mid-January and despite what you’ve heard about sunny Florida, when winter cold fronts march through, it can be cold, windy and rainy. More than once the Sebring show has been tanked for a day by gales. A November date, which is where Deland plans to be, will yield reliably warmer and drier weather. The Sebring show began life in October, but moved to January later.

The racetrack relates to Sebring International Raceway, which is joined at the hip to the airport runways. I don’t recall there having been races during the Sport Aviation Expo week, but there’s plenty of practice. And vendors and attendees have complained about the grinding din of cars running practice laps. It makes normal conversation a chore and at the end of a day, your teeth hurt from grinding them.

My initial impression is that the Deland show is set up similarly to Sebring, albeit smaller. I thought for a first effort, the show was well organized and had excellent signage to find the place and navigate the grounds once you’re through the gates. The demo area was an easy walk and they had a temporary tower set up to oversee operations with a nice, tight demo pattern. For indoor exhibitors, there was a spacious tent. They could do with better food opportunities, but I say that about every show I attend except for Aero, where I basically go just for the food. Next year, invite a Korean taco truck or two and that will help.

There was a media tent right at the show entrance; a solid there. I missed the free lunch because I could only stay for one day. I would offer this advice: Don’t lard up the schedule with phony press conferences. That’s not how people find out about things these days. It’s all through the web and social media. If you’re a company looking for coverage, make up a press contact list and issue direct invitations. Trust me, it’ll work a lot better. I could have stayed another day and done productive work, but juxtaposed against four days at NBAA, I just didn’t have the time.

Thinking about attendance at this show, I have concluded that expecting a big gate the first year is folly. It will take a few years for it to declare itself as real and durable. And vendors will have to decide if it’s worth coming back and my guess is they will choose between Deland and Sebring. For many of these companies, doing both is just not practical or possible. I suspect the competition will get fierce and I won’t be surprised if only one prevails. The industry is hardly robust enough to support two so closely spaced on the calendar.

Meanwhile, when I heard they’re going to call the complex a Sport Aviation Village, my ears perked up. Every village needs an idiot, so I’m sending them my resume.

AeroJones, which took over manufacturing and distribution of the Flight Design CTLS line, said it plans to expand early next year with a new facility in Florida. At the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase this week, AeroJones’ John Hurst told AVweb in this podcast that the company hasn’t settled on a site yet, but the new sport aviation village on Deland Airport is under consideration.

It was a tough call this week, but for sheer photographic excellence in composition and capturing the moment, Mike Bargman, of Geneva, Illinois edged out other contenders. Great shot, Mike. Get those submissions coming in and click through to see the rest from this week.

The successful aviator needs more than the ability to look good behind overpriced sunglasses. Great pilots know the regulations and how to apply them in all weather, day or night, but especially while acing this quiz. (Includes results from last month's reader survey.)

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